Marc Marquez “put pressure on myself” to complete “perfect” Aragon MotoGP weekend

Marc Marquez finally ended his almost-three-year-long victory drought in last weekend’s Aragon MotoGP, a victory which came after a weekend he described as "perfect".

Marquez topped all three practice sessions, took pole position by 0.8 seconds, won the Sprint in dominant fashion, and was five seconds clear of Jorge Martin in the Grand Prix on Sunday. 

Only the Warm Up, which was wet after overnight rain on Saturday and into Sunday morning, was not topped by Marquez, as he didn’t set a lap time.

“It was a perfect weekend,” Marquez told the post-race press conference. “We lead all the sessions, just the Warm Up that honestly speaking I decided with the team to stay in the box.”

Marquez went on to talk about the emotional build up of the almost three years he’d gone without victory, and the release he felt on crossing the line to take what was his 60th premier class triumph.

“In the race we have an amazing feeling from the beginning,” he said. “It was a super-long race, it was difficult to control the emotions in the last laps, but when I crossed that finish line I felt like I lost 3–4kg.

“Because [my] back, step-by-step, was heavier and heavier, and achieving this victory was incredible, and immediately I start to think about all the processes we had, about all the people around me, about all my family, my girlfriend, my brother [Alex Marquez].

“They helped me a lot, and especially Gresini team gave me the opportunity. I approach as a rookie rider, try to give everything, and we did it. We take another target and now we keep going.”

Marquez build a substantial advantage throughout the race, such that he had time to think about things in the final laps.

“Last three laps, my mind was in the podium already,” he said. “More than the podium, the garage, the Gresini garage is quite funny and happy, always is a party around them.

“Apart from that, the first thing was the people around me. When you are in a very difficult situation, when you are in a very deep situation, if you don’t have a really human team, really nice people, that they are suffering more than me — that made the difference.

“It was a very strange celebration because the adrenaline was higher in some other races — celebrating second places, third places — than today, that was [...] emotion more than adrenaline.”

Having topped every session bar the wet Sunday morning Warm Up, Marquez admitted that he felt some pressure to complete his weekend with victory in Grand Prix.

“Today, I put pressure on myself,” he said. “As you saw yesterday in the Sprint, I was not enjoying because I knew that today is an important day and I knew that I had an important opportunity.

“So, for that reason, I tried to be focused. When you have the speed, then [it] looks like you can manage the situation, you are consistent, you are smart; but you are the same, just if you don’t have the speed it’s super-difficult to manage the situation.

“So, let’s see if we can have a better speed the next races and try to be close to these top guys.”

Victory achieved, it’s one Marquez considers alongside his 2021 German Grand Prix triumph, which was his first after breaking his arm at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix.

“I put it in a very equal level as 2021 in Germany,” Marquez said. 

“When you have a lot of injuries, a very deep moment, the value of the victories is different. 

"It’s true that I won 60 times, but those two victories, together with the first one in MotoGP, are the most important ones because the confidence is given to you in a different way and gives to you that extra confidence.

“It was a long time that I didn’t feel good, and the laps this weekend were short. I was just riding, it was easy, I was just flowing but I was extra concentrated to not make any mistakes.”

Although this was Marquez’ 12th race weekend with the Gresini Ducati team, he said that he’d known victory was possible since his first time riding the Desmosedici in the Valencia test at the end of 2023.

“In Valencia test I realised that it [a race win] will arrive,” Marquez said. “There, I realised that we will have our opportunities. One thing is to fight for the championship, for that point we need to keep working.

“But in Valencia I started to understand that sooner or later it will arrive.”